Dr. Clark Dickerson has led more than 250 capital campaigns over 40 years. Every one of them has rested on the same three principles:
* God is the owner of all
* We’re stewards and not owners
* We’re blessed to bless others
In this episode, Andrew sits down with Clark Dickerson, the co-founder of DickersonBakker to talk about his new book, Growing into Generosity: God’s Call to Greater Financial Faithfulness. Clark starts at the beginning. His first campaign was a $2 million effort for a Tennessee Christian school in 1985. Then comes a 100th-anniversary campaign at Johnson Bible College. Afterward, the college president pulled him aside and said the only thing wrong with this kind of fundraising was that they hadn’t started 20 years earlier. Clark also shares how he won his first college campaign. When a president asked how many successful college campaigns he’d led, Clark answered, “When we finish yours, it will be one.”
From there, the conversation goes after the hard stuff:
* Why pastors, executive directors and board members avoid talking about money, and what that silence costs their organizations.
* Why up to 40% of Christians give nothing at all.
* Why a couple earning $600,000 a year could say “there just wasn’t anything left” at the end of the month.
* Clark’s argument that the hardest stewardship principle is prayer. He believes many people don’t pray about their giving because they’re afraid of what the answer might be.
Clark also explains why these ideas apply well beyond ministry. His long-time line is that “donors do the good deeds,” and the organization is simply the conduit. His advice to fundraisers is to raise money for the need, not the building.
The episode closes with one of the best donor stories you’ll hear. A board chairman angrily refused a $50,000 ask: “Who in the world do you think you are?” Then he showed up at Clark’s airport hotel at 11 p.m., soaked from a thunderstorm, to say yes. The two talked until 3 a.m., and that conversation changed how the family gave from then on.
In this episode:
* (00:47) Clark’s first capital campaign, in 1985
* (03:34) The campaign that convinced Clark this was his calling
* (07:26) Who Growing into Generosity was written for, and the three principles behind every campaign
* (13:28) What happens to an organization when its leader won’t talk about money
* (18:18) Do these principles work in secular fundraising? Why “donors do the good deeds”
* (20:18) The hardest principle for people to accept: praying about giving
* (23:19) Giving first versus giving last
* (25:38) The midnight knock: stories of generosity that changed lives
* (29:50) When people don’t know, and when they know but aren’t willing
Get the book: Growing into Generosity: God’s Call to Greater Financial Faithfulness by Dr. Clark Dickerson.
This episode of the Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast is sponsored by my newest book, Rainmaking: The Fundraiser’s Guide to High-Impact Offers. This 49-page book (yeah, it really is that short — on purpose) is packed with the specific guidance and insights you need to improve your nonprofit’s fundraising offers and raise more money. It includes the exact framework I have used to guide hundreds of organizations through the offer development process over the last 25 years. And you can read it faster than you can read a Trader Joe’s newsletter.
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